1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to input devices included in small electronic equipment, such as mobile terminal devices, for inputting operation to the electronic equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some input devices of this kind, when an operation member is moved by a swinging operation movement in the left and right direction or a pushing operation movement in the up and down direction, a movable contacting point part moves accordingly and thereby selectively contacting four fixed contacting point parts arranged on an inner wall surface of a case to switch the corresponding switching means (switching means made up of the selected movable contacting point part and the corresponding fixed contacting point part) (see Japanese Utility Model Registered No. 3048274 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-149925).
Such an input device has a drawback in that static electricity charged when a user touches the operation member may flow through the operation member to an internal circuit such as the switching means. To overcome such a drawback, there is known an input device having an earth terminal arranged in the vicinity of the operation member (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-63416).
In such an input device, a signal terminal and an earth terminal are arranged on one metal plate, which is insert molded in a case, and later a coupling part of the signal terminal and the earth terminal is split. That is, it is required to provide a separate process of separating the signal terminal and the earth terminal after integrally arranging the signal terminal and the earth terminal in the case. Such separate process leads to increased manufacturing steps.
Furthermore, since the earth terminal must be folded at a right angle before being solder connected to the circuit board, another separate process is required before solder connection, which also leads to increased manufacturing steps.